Illinois high court refuses to reconsider decision tossing $10.1B tobacco judgment News
Illinois high court refuses to reconsider decision tossing $10.1B tobacco judgment

[JURIST] The Illinois Supreme Court [official website] said Friday that it would not reconsider its decision [text; JURIST report] ruling invalid a $10.1 billion judgment against Philip Morris USA [corporate website] in a case where the tobacco company had been found liable for defrauding customers into believing that light cigarettes were safer than regular ones. In December, the state high court ordered the trial court to dismiss the case, holding that US Federal Trade Commission [official website] regulations gave tobacco companies authority to denominate products as "light" or "low tar and nicotine" and that under the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act, companies cannot be held liable for behavior that has been specifically permitted by a regulatory body.

In its order Friday, the court did not elaborate on its decision to deny the plaintiffs' request for reconsideration, but two justices dissented, saying that the court had overlooked or misunderstood several of the plaintiffs' key points. A lawyer for the plaintiffs said an appeal to the US Supreme Court is planned [Reuters report]. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Bank of England granted political independence

On May 6, 1997, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown announced that the Bank of England would be granted political independence for the first time in the three-hundred year history of the Bank. This policy was statutized in the subsequent Bank of England Act of 1998 gave the Bank independent control of British monetary policy effective June 1, 1998. Read the Bank of England Act of 1998.

Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese laborers from US

On May 6, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese laborers from entering the United States and prohibiting courts from bestowing US citizenship on Chinese. Connecticut Senator Joseph Hawley spoke out against the Act in these words: Let the proposed statue be read 100 years hence, dug out of the dust of ages and forgotten as it will be except for a line of sneer by some historian, and ask the young man not well read in the history of this country what was the reason for excluding these men and he would not be able to find it in the law. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and its successors were abolished in 1943 at the insistence of President Franklin Roosevelt.